Secrets

Album: Starboy (2016)
Charted: 47 47
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about duplicity and fading trust in a relationship. The Weeknd knows what is in his girl's mind:

    It's a lie, a lie
    I catch you every time
    In your lust, your lust
    Every time you close your eyes
  • The first two lines of the chorus borrow from The Romantics' 1983 hit "Talking In Your Sleep." It then ends with a sample of Tears For Fears' "Pale Shelter".

    Romantics guitarist Mike Skill told Billboard magazine that he enjoys the "futuristic, electronica, techno" flavor of The Weeknd's song. "What's cool is he does a little bit of his own melody on the verse and the chorus," he said.

    "It's good," Skill added. "From what I can tell, I think it's just a lot of the chorus in the end and he doesn't follow the melody that we use. He kind of adds his own melody. It's kind of a mash-up. Kind of a jam on top of a groove."
  • The song supposedly started as a country ballad inspired by Dolly Parton and Conway Twitty.
  • The Weeknd told Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 show this is his favorite song on the Starboy album.
  • The Weeknd tried to find different registers that he hadn't sung in before for Starboy. He told Billboard magazine that he sang "a lot of low stuff" on songs like this one "almost like Toni Braxton."

    The Weeknd added: "On 'Secrets,' I'm a different person. I've played it for people, and they have no idea it's me."
  • The eerie music video was directed by Pedro Martin-Calero marking his first collaboration with The Weeknd The clip was filmed at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Toronto Reference Library and co-stars The Weeknd's fellow Canadian singer Black Atlass as the mystery woman's other lover.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Harry Shearer

Harry ShearerSongwriter Interviews

Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

Glen Burtnik

Glen BurtnikSongwriter Interviews

On Glen's résumé: hit songwriter, Facebook dominator, and member of Styx.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' Albums

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' AlbumsSong Writing

With the rise of Kindie rock, more musicians are embracing their inner child with tunes for tots - here, we look at pop stars who recorded kids' albums.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)Songwriter Interviews

Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai were two of Graham's co-writers for some '80s rock classics.